China, Pak say oppose J&K ‘unilateral’ action

India’s decision last year to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

The joint statement was issued soon after President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying that China and Pakistan are “good brothers” and “good partners”, and that the economic corridor between the two countries, which passes through Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (POK), is key to forging even closer ties between Beijing and Islamabad.

In a recorded message addressed to his Pakistani counterpart Arif Alvi, Xi said the China-pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), “a landmark project” under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is of “great importance to promoting in-depth development of the China-pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and forging a closer China-pakistan community with a shared future”.

India has consistently opposed CPEC because it passes through POK. Beijing has paid little attention to New Delhi’s reservations about trade and transit corridor and pumped in money and resources to building infrastructure such as power plants and highways.

CPEC is among the new irritants and concerns for India’s ties with China, but Beijing has refused to address this issue, arguing it is only an economic project.

State-run Xinhua news agency released Xi’s statement, which said: “China and Pakistan are good brothers and partners who share special friendship.”

He added that the frequent meeting of political parties from both sides is conducive to steadily advancing the construction of CPEC and high-quality cooperation under BRI.

According to the joint statement, both sides also “agreed on continuing their firm support on issues concerning each other’s core national interests”.

Beijing told Islamabad that China “firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding its territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, independently choosing a development path based on its national conditions, striving for a better external security environment and playing a more constructive role on international and regional affairs”.

In a statement released separately, Wang said China and Pakistan had agreed on cooperation in research and development of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asia at the China Institutes of Contemporary Internareduction tional Relations, told state media that India has a narrow approach to China-pakistan friendship.

“India has adopted a hostile attitude toward the cooperation between China and Pakistan and believes China and Pakistan will soon unite against India. It’s a rather ‘narrow-minded’ perspective that does not conform to India’s position of a big country in South Asia,” Fu said.

from the earlier figure of 1,500.

At polling booths, electors will stand six feet-apart, in line with health ministry guidelines. Soap, water and hand sanitizers will be made available at the entry point. Thermal scanners will also be there.

Covid-19 patients, those in quarantine for symptoms and those with temperature higher than normal will be made to wait and vote in the last one hour, in keeping with safety norms prescribed by the health ministry.

Extra face masks will be kept for those not carrying one. During the identification process, voters will require to lower the face mask, the document said.

“Earmarking circle for 15-20 persons of 2 yards (6 feet) distance for voters standing in the queue depending on the availability of space. There shall be three queues each, for male, female, and PWD (people with disabilities)/ senior citizen voters,” the guidelines said.

A group of just five people, including candidates but excluding security personnel, is allowed to take part in door-todoor campaigning.

For road shows, a convoy of vehicles should have an interval after every five vehicles instead of 10 vehicles (excluding security vehicles, if any). The interval between two sets of convoys of vehicles should be half-anhour instead of a gap of 100 metres.

The commission’s guidelines added: “In all, such identified grounds (where public rallies are to be conducted), the District Election Officer should, in advance, put markers to ensure social distancing norms by the attendees.”

Nomination forms will be available online on the website of the chief electoral officer and district election officer. The number of persons to accompany a candidate for submission of nomination has been restricted to two. The number of vehicles for the purposes of nomination is also restricted to two.

While elections have taken place in other countries since the pandemic, including in Sri Lanka recently, elections in India have only been confined to polls to the Rajya Sabha and legislative council seats, which involve a limited set of voters. Experts believe that the election guidelines adopted for Bihar, where elections are due in October-november, will have significant implications for political contests.

ECI, which reviewed suggestions received from state officials and political parties before releasing the final guidelines, is also likely to hold polls to the Samastipur parliamentary constituency and 56 assembly constituencies (across eight states) from September.

The Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were critical of the guidelines.

The Congress issued a statement saying that the guidelines were not enough for the conduct of “free, fair and independent elections” in the time of Covid-19, and in ensuring the smooth elections in “free, non-partisan & fair fashion”.

“Despite having sought comments from political parties such as the Indian National Congress and in response to which detailed recommendations were given, the ECI has overlooked almost all the suggestions given and prepared guidelines that are inadequate in dealing with the challenge of Covid-19,” said party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal.

RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said the guidelines appeared to have been formulated keeping a country “other than India in mind”.

“These guidelines will not ensure maximum voter participation,” said Jha. “As an incentive, perhaps, a health insurance for voters can be offered, in case it is being offered to poll officials. An election with a 25% turnout is hardly an election.”

“It seems the ECI is more invested in the idea of an election, than in its democratic potential,” he added.

There was no immediate response by the Centre’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

But former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi said the guidelines were “very sensible” and have “drawn from the experience of other elections”. “They are in conformity with the health ministry guidelines...,” he said.